Mindful Beauty
By Briana Lerner, Lifestyle Staff Writer
Mental illnesses comes in many forms and require treatments and coping mechanisms that are unique to each affected person. This is the same for each person’s beauty routine. A new perspective for beauty lovers living with and without a mental illness includes using beauty or skin care as a way to meditate.
For some, going through a rough bout of anxiety or depression means a decrease in attention to basic hygiene. However, practicing a skin care ritual and going through one’s beauty routine possesses therapeutic and soothing properties, as it provides something to look forward to! How you feel about your external self can affect how you feel internally, so while some view extensive time in the bathroom as being vain, it provides a very important form of self-care.
Many people may envision meditation as a cliché activity done in a yoga class while humming and thinking of your “happy place” (what does that even mean, anyway?). Yet, meditation does much more than that. According to the New York Times’ Well Guides, meditation is “a way to train the mind,” to practice mindfulness in the present moment and make ourselves feel “less stressed, calmer and kinder to ourselves and others.” This simplified definition can apply to any number of practices, including beauty and skin care.
Going through the same motions every day provides a calming, dependable ritual. By spending a half-hour applying your makeup each the morning, you focus on the one task at hand, being mindful and aware of the present moment. You go through regular steps of applying products: first primer, then foundation, concealer, etcetera, and can distract yourself from any worries you may have. Additionally, spending a night to complete an at-home facial or an extensive skin care routine can serve the same purpose of focusing, calming and being present.
Overall, having a set makeup or skincare routine can be a relaxing way to meditate and boost your confidence. Next time you need a way to be more present, increase your mindfulness through your beauty routine. This beauty meditation could lead to you be a more relaxed version of you!